The Grass is Greener
by AmazingGraceless
Summary: QFL challenge, write a character being interested in Herbology before they study magic.
1. Gardening

When Astoria was small, only seven years old, she had wandered into Estella's alchemy lab. It wasn't the golden simmering cauldron that drew her attention, nor was it the ancient tome of knowledge that smelled of strange, wonderful aromas that was left wide-open for her prying brown eyes. No, Astoria was drawn to the softly glowing plants in the little box by the cracked-open window. Her chubby little hands reached towards the plants, but before she could touch, Estella had come in and snatched her out of the lab.

"That's Mummy's lab," Estella scolded as she set Astoria back down outside of the door. "I've got dangerous plants and ingredients in there, and I don't want you getting hurt. Do you understand?"

Astoria's lips said yes, but she wanted to see the plants again.

After the incident, she began taking care of some muggle flowers that were growing in the back garden in attempt to show Estella that she was indeed responsible enough to be near the magical plants. What she didn't notice was how unusually easily plants flourished at her touch, how they seemed to be glowing when she played in the back garden. Daphne could've sworn she'd seen it once or twice, but she banished it from her mind.

While Daphne would play with Pansy Parkinson or the Malfoy boy, Astoria would be out of sight, watering her garden or simply just watching the peonies sway in the breeze. Being out alone in the garden that reminded her of the fairies in her storybooks made her feel as if she herself was a fairy, resting in her elegant meadow where all wishes and dreams came true. It was a silly, stupid feeling, yes, but all the same it made her happy.

When she was eight, she toddled into the Greengrass private library and began tearing any book about plants she could find off the shelf. Magical and non-magical both, all she wanted to know about was how they worked, why they grew and where to find more. Her stuttering tongue stumbled over the word "Herbology" comically, stumbling and tripping and falling epically. She began reading in her garden about them, and could even be heard sometimes reading to the flowers she loved so much.

It was then that Estella began to notice her daughter's aptitude and interest in Herbology, but she didn't say a word.

When Astoria was nine, and Daphne was eleven, off at Hogwarts, she was jealous. With Daphne writing about her wonderful times and the dratted Harry Potter and the Slytherin dorms, Astoria couldn't help but feel upset. She wouldn't get to go for another two whole years! She'd decided that she would make Daphne jealous. So she began stealing some of the smaller, less harmful plants she recognized from Estella's lab.

While Daphne wrote about Transfiguration or Charms or Potions, Astoria began trying to find more and more. She'd make Daphne wish she hadn't left her behind. She'd show her!

Finally, in December, the remaining pureblood families that "stayed true to their heritage" had come back and had met for a party of sorts. The adults chattered in the parlor over tea while the school-age children talked about school excitedly.

Astoria sighed. They wouldn't notice her or even look outside. Despite the England weather, despite several of the flowers dying, the magical ones had thrived and were blooming in the snow. She had spent many hours out there to make it so and tried so hard to make it impressive, trying to make it pretty.

She stormed up the stairs, not caring anymore whether anybody saw her work. She was just little Astoria Greengrass, the girl that nobody ever noticed ever. Estella and her father ignored her. Daphne, now that she was going to Hogwarts ignored her. All of Daphne's friends, who had tolerated her and treated her like a little pet for their gang now left her in the dust. She wanted to cry, it was so unfair!

Astoria only looked up, as if sensing danger, to see the others coming out of the house and already Crabbe and Goyle were tearing up the plants! She threw on her coat and didn't bother lacing up her snow boots as she leapt down the stairs, and tumbled out of the house.

"STOP!" she cried, running towards the rest of the moonflower patch. "Those were my flowers!"

"Wait, you grew this?" Draco Malfoy asked her. "You aren't even in Hogwarts yet."

"Who do you think grew it?" Astoria snarled. "Last I checked, Malfoy, you weren't exactly doing well in Herbology!"

"Well obviously Mummy helped it," Daphne said logically.

"Mummy doesn't even know or care," Astoria said. "I tried to get her out here several times, but she was always busy! I did this all by myself and you just don't want to admit it!"

The kids just laughed and walked back inside, and Astoria began to kick the snow angrily.

"Is this what you were doing?"

Astoria turned to see Estella, who was examining her daughter's moonflower patch with exquisite interest.

"Yes, Mum."

"It's beautiful, sweetie," Estella said, hugging her daughter. "And moonflower no less! How did you get it?"

"I took it from your lab," Astoria admitted.

"Well, they certainly look pretty here," Estella murmured. "My goodness, you made them survive in the winter! You've got quite the talent for Herbology Astoria!"

No one was surprised when Astoria went on to become one of the renown Herbologists alongside Neville Longbottom in years to come.


	2. Gale for Greengrass

Prompt: Tornadoes, word count is 981.

* * *

Tornadoes.

Why did it have to be tornadoes?

Astoria couldn't help but watch the spell gone horribly wrong. She was trying out a technique a muggle-born in her year had mentioned-air bending. She didn't quite know what they were talking about, but Astoria had always been gifted with spells involving the air-not just Herbology. Ventruses flew off of her tongue, whipping flags around like rag dolls and giving everyone messy windblown hair in the vicinity.

Never had little Astoria Greengrass caused this much trouble with her air magic before.

And now the cyclone was coming closer and closer, descending it's terror upon Hogwarts. Astoria tried to run, but was frozen in shock, just watching her monster. Only once had she created anything close to this sort of damage.

She was only six years old, and she had a toy that Daphne wanted and refused to relinquish it. In response to Astoria's refusal to bow to the elder, Daphne began using her wind magic to take it. Before it was halfway to Daphne's lap, Astoria had turned the wind against her. Sort of.

The two sisters' gales grew stronger and stronger in strength, until Estella had come downstairs. Astoria would always remember Estella's face when she saw the mini-cyclone in the playroom, wreaking devastation with a toy in the middle of it.

Of course, Estella had split them up immediately, given them time-outs, the usual sort of thing, but Astoria had never forgotten it as an example of what she could do if she lost control. The Greengrass blood and Havisham blood in particular had given her gifts that were both specific and powerful. She'd have to use it wisely.

Astoria thought she'd never see such a thing again. She was only a third-year, for crying out loud! How was she supposed to create something that big, that menacing?

It seemed to rage even more as it got closer, the wind howling a soundtrack to her fear as she stood there, paralyzed. What she didn't see, what she didn't know until she was looking at the ground on all fours was Daphne, protecting her and trying to stop the storm. Daphne pinned her down and they waited-then the wind stopped. Astoria looked up cautiously.

It was gone, dissolved by some castle enchantment.

What Astoria didn't know was that she'd do it again.

* * *

Everything had gone to hell when the Weasley twins left. Slytherin was mostly out of the business, supporting Umbridge and all. Astoria Greengrass seemed to be the exception. Maybe it was that Astoria felt like Umbridge wasn't the right sort of person to be running Hogwarts. Maybe it was that Astoria found it fun. Maybe it was that Astoria thought it the right thing to do.

Whatever the reason, it didn't stop Daphne from scolding, that stupid Malfoy, and all of Daphne's friends from smirking when they had to take Astoria up to Umbridge's office for growing algae in Umbridge's water glass at any given time that the bitch and the witch happened to be in the same room.

Little did they know that she had the perfect distraction up her sleeve. They thought her not too much of a threat, so her wand was still on her. Daphne probably thought that all of them could counter Astoria's way with the winds. She was very wrong.

Right at the steps before the old toad's office, Astoria flicked her wand, sending a jet of cold air sinking down in drafts. With a swish, and upward current of hot air roared up their necks. She concentrated, creating stronger gales, knocking the I.S. down.

Astoria began to run, but she kept stopping to renew the winds, stronger and stronger, letting her emotions of fear and anger and childish satisfaction and others she couldn't name fuel her tornado, the symbol of her power and rage. She could feel Daphne trying to quell it, too, but it didn't help that Astoria was angry at her, too.

Slytherins were supposed to protect their own. Whatever happened to that? Ever since the war, Slytherin had been a broken house between the legacies of the Dark-Lord's inner circle and those who refused to repeat history.

When the dust had cleared, no one knew where Greengrass was.

They only truly knew that she was the one who created it when the Battle of Hogwarts circled around two-years later.

* * *

To Astoria, McGonagall's decree was unfair. Unjust. Cruel. Well, maybe not cruel, but it was certainly unjust and unfair. Every Slytherin was kicked out just because of stupid Pansy Parkinson. Was it any surprise that Astoria snuck back with the Creevey twins?

In this fight, she was fighting for the honor of her house. She was fighting to reclaim all that her house had become in this war. Slytherins weren't inherently evil. She knew this. But the others didn't. Even if it would take forever to prove her allegiance, Astoria would keep fighting for Dumbledore's Army, the Order of Phoenix, and would back them up forever until they got the message.

She showed this the best way she knew how. In the second tide of the battle, when he Dark Lord himself wad in the fight, she unleashed her tornado. This one was different. It was fueled with love. Love for her House, love for her friends, love for Daphne, love for Hogwarts, love for humanity.

All of it made the strongest tornado she'd ever produced.

A cyclone towering up to the ceiling of the Great Hall, it wreaked devastation upon the stupid-as-rocks Giants, it sent everyone flying. Her tornado had changed the game. Astoria never forgot that, ever.

She never produced a tornado again, either. Perhaps a small breeze, a parlor trick, but nothing of that scale ever again. She had enough love and rage as it was.


	3. Cursed Child

**AN: Spoilers for _Harry Potter and the Cursed Child_ ahead. I cried writing this, exploring what we learned of our favorite little Greengrass sister in the Cursed Child. Bring tissues.**

* * *

Daphne cried when she first heard about the cursed child in her family. It was a simple check-up with their pediatric healer, for both Greengrass sisters, but then Westley and Estella were pulled aside by the healers as the two girls waited in the room with the straight-back chairs and boring magazines.

When their parents came back, they were crying, speaking in low whispers about how their family was cursed. That night, when Estella came to tuck Daphne in, she explained in a low voice that Astoria was cursed- her health would fail, and she would never make it to old age.

Daphne cried herself to sleep and had nightmares of her little sister dying.

* * *

For the first few years, the only thing Astoria was cursed with was an overprotective sister who followed her every move. Astoria wasn't allowed to stay out long- at least, Daphne made sure she wasn't, and if she heard one of her friends had the flu she begged them not to come for months after.

The following only ended when Daphne left for Hogwarts. Even then, she sent letters to Astoria every day, worrying for her health. She only worried more when she saw her sister's garden. _How long has Astoria been out in the cold, when she could've caught a chill?_

She cursed her mother's negligence and thanked whatever God above that her sister hadn't fallen deathly ill yet.

"Tori, you shouldn't spend so much time outside," Daphne said to her later that night.

"Daphne, I'm fine," Astoria said stubbornly, only for her to cough. It was one, short cough, but it set Daphne on edge. She checked for a pulse, a fever, all while Astoria tried to swat her away.

"It was just one cough-" Astoria's assurance turned to a lie as she broke off into a coughing fit. "It's just a cough, I'll get water for Merlin's sake!"

She ran into the bathroom before Daphne could say or do anything.

* * *

"Mummy! Daddy! Daphne! Look!"

Astoria ran into the kitchen carrying the famous letter with the seal of England's best school for magic, looking ecstatic. She ripped open her letter, her dark green eyes reading over the acceptance letter.

"I'm gonna go to Hogwarts and be a Slytherin like Daphne and do magic and-"

"You're not letting her go to Hogwarts, are you?" Daphne demanded, her eyes pleading to Estella.

"Of course we're letting her go," Westley said with a frown, his booming voice still managing to sound joyful.

"But what about all the diseases and the weather-" Daphne whined.

"Daphne, a word?" Estella gestured towards the next room with a perfectly manicured blue-green fingernail.

Daphne reluctantly followed her mother in as she shut the door behind her.

"Listen," Estella commanded. "I know you worry for your sister, and your Father and I appreciate that. But we both know that she isn't going to live that long- and so does she."

With that, she pulled out a small tattered notebook with childish scrawl on the yellowed pages and handed it to Daphne. _Astoria Greengrass's Bucket List_ , the front page read.

"She knows what a bucket list is?" Daphne asked in horror.

"Read it," Estella insisted. "Then tell me how we should limit what life she does have."

* * *

Astoria had daily check-ins with Madam Pomfrey- and she got sick a little more than the average school child. She had an uncanny talent for doing work while sick, because of this, Daphne noticed. Yet still, she planted in the greenhouse and had many friends- if she hadn't been so ambitious with that she wanted to cram into her life, Daphne could've sworn her sister was a Hufflepuff. Indeed, many of her friends were Hufflepuffs.

She learned to keep a distance between them. As Astoria grew older, she became stubborn when Daphne became overbearing.

"This is my life," Astoria would tell her, her blond hair whipping around with the velocity of her words. "I will choose how I live it."

* * *

Astoria married quite soon after she graduated Hogwarts- Draco Malfoy of all people. Daphne may have been friends with him in her youth, but she despises what he became- something she managed to avoid. She cautioned Astoria against wanting to save such a man as Draco Malfoy, especially when she was only nineteen.

"If you don't like my choices, don't come to my wedding," Astoria snapped in an icy fashion that suited their mother rather than her.

Daphne did attend, but she couldn't help but stare at them, wondering what crime Astoria had committed to deserve marriage to Draco Malfoy. It was the way he looked at her, though, that held the answer. He looked at Astoria like she was the sun or some other celestial being, and Astoria basked in his attentions.

The week after, Astoria fell into a mild illness that proved Malfoy's devotion to her and Daphne's worries to be true.

* * *

Daphne felt sick when she heard the news over a luncheon at Fortescue's.

"You're pregnant?" she demanded. "Tori, no! Remember what the healer told you? The pregnancy can further the curse."

"I know," Astoria answered serenely as she sipped on her lemonade.

"Then why?" Daphne demanded.

"Because Draco needs someone to look after him, and we both know it would never have been me," Astoria snapped. "I'm leaving him a piece of me."

* * *

Daphne hated that kid. For one, who names their kid Scorpius Hyperion? For two, she hated how sick her sister was after that kid was born. Always in the middle of some cold or another, Draco was having to take care of two people- sometimes forcing him to beg Daphne to help him.

She took her sister- she couldn't stand her nephew crying his dark green eyes out- the ones he'd inherited from Astoria- when he was the reason her sister was so violently ill.

* * *

Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy stood in front of the casket, not crying now. He looked like a doll more than child, in perfect shape, not a platinum blond lock out of place as he stared at the corpse of his mother.

Dressed in a lake green, lilies on her chest and woven through her golden blond waves, Astoria looked peaceful, not like she had in the last few moments, fighting for her life. Scorpius had been the only calm one then, for some reason not crying as his own mother left him, only smiling for her as she died.

 _Cry, cry you pathetic little kid,_ Daphne taunted mentally. _Suffer for what you did to your mother._

Standing there, however, Daphne realized he looked a lot like his mother. She too was serene in moments when Daphne could not. It was as if Astoria understood the secret of life and death and had passed it to her son.

 _What would she want?_ Daphne asked herself. _She'd want me to be there for her son_.

Before she left the service, she handed her nephew the bucket list of Astoria Greengrass, with the last item checked off.

 _Leave behind a piece of me for the world to remember._

* * *

 **Rest in peace, Astoria Greengrass-Malfoy. It's too bad Rowling didn't explore you more than she should've.**


	4. Forever and Ever

**AN: This was for the Quidditch Fanfiction League, Round 12, write a lighthearted story about Slytherin characters. Very minor Cursed Child Spoilers, 906 words, maybe a bit more bittersweet?**

* * *

It was days like these that Astoria felt at home. Sitting with the Carrow sisters on the lawn, scribbling down a Potions essay that they could bungle completely and still get full marks for. It certainly relieved the stress for Astoria. She never was much good at Potions.

"What did you get for problem six?" Flora asked, her dark eyes not straying from the Arithmacy homework in front of her.

"Problem six?" Astoria flipped through her several pages of parchment. "I got forty-two."

"Are you sure?" Flora asked.

Astoria gave her a look of utter seriousness. "My sister took the class. It's forty-two. She showed me how to work it."

"Thanks," Flora said quickly.

"So tell me," Hestia said, looking up from her Transfiguration textbook, "did he talk to you today?"

"Who?" Astoria asked, playing dumb as she possibly could.

The twins giggled.

"I think you know," Flora said coyly.

"Oh no-"

"Draco Malfoy," the twins chorused.

"For the love of Merlin, no!" Astoria cried, her white complexion going very pink. "You are never going to let me forget that, are you?"

"We share a dormitory with you," Flora said reasonably. "Of course everyone was going to see 'Madam Draco Malfoy' scrawled all over your diary."

"Mostly because Mafalda Prewett took it," Astoria said darkly. She then broke out into a fit of coughs that drew attention. Passerby stared at the younger Greengrass sister's fit.

"You okay?" Flora asked.

"I'm fine," Astoria said, only to break into coughing again. The twins exchanged a concerned look. "Just don't tell my sister. Please."

"We won't," Hestia said firmly, remembering the last time they went to Daphne for Astoria's constant sickness. "Is the curse getting worse?"

Astoria frowned. "It shouldn't be. Father said it wouldn't get worse unless I had a child."

Hestia let out a cough that sounded oddly like 'Draco Malfoy's.'

"Can we talk about something else?" Astoria asked, her coughing finally dying down. "I already hear enough from Daffy."

"Sure," Flora said amicably. "We were. Malfoy."

Astoria rolled her eyes and pretended to be annoyed, despite the large grin that had bloomed on her face.

"I'm telling you, he's interested in Parkinson," she insisted despite the bitterness. "He wouldn't know me from a Hufflepuff."

"That's because you're so nice!" Flora said.

"Kiss-up," Astoria taunted.

"Compliment-fisher," Hestia shot back.

"Interrupter," Flora said irritably, glaring at her twin. "You always steal my-"

"Sentences?"

Hestia's charming, smug smile seemed to win even Flora over, for now.

"Come on losers, let's go by the lake," Astoria said teasingly, shoving papers into her books and her books into her schoolbag. "It's a nice day."

"You'd think it a nice day if we were in Hell," Hestia said.

Astoria shrugged. "At least I'd get to see something interesting."

Still, the other girls packed up their things. The Carrow twins knew that it was better to indulge their friend in her whims like the wind than to dig their heels, especially on something as trivial as where on campus they did their homework.

The small brunette skipped down to the side of the lake, and paused for only a moment before taking off her socks and shoes.

"I thought we were studying!" Flora protested.

"It's too beautiful out to study," Astoria scoffed as she waded into the water. Her long blond-streaked brown hair shielded her pensive face from the others as she stared at the reflection of the sky in the water.

"Are you coming or not, Flor?" Hestia asked as she stomped in the soft, luscious lake mud after Astoria.

"I'll stay here," Flora said with her customary frown. "I'd rather not get wet."

"Suit yourself," Hestia said with a shrug, flipping her own dark hair dramatically. She kicked the surface of the water, causing a kaleidoscope of ripples to break out. Astoria, for some reason, stood still, arms outstretched as if she were basking in the sun, but she was looking down at her feet, radiating a solemnity that Hestia and Flora both only had seen on Astoria. Not even adults, battered and bruised and wiser, had such solemnity radiating off them.

It made Hestia feel old, just being near her.

"Everything's changing," Astoria said in a voice that sounded as old as the sun. "I only want one thing to be the same. I'm not asking to be friends forever. I don't want anyone tied to me. I just want to be remembered. For you to remember me."

"Of course we would," Hestia said with a glance back at Flora, gesturing for Flora to join them. Flora reluctantly set her books down and began taking off her robes so they wouldn't get wet.

"I don't want you to make some empty promise," Astoria continued. "I want you to mean it."

"Like an Unbreakable Vow?" Flora asked seriously as she waded out to where the other girls stood.

"No, I'm not like that," Astoria said with a dry, bitter laugh. "I guess I mean the muggle expression. . . Cross your heart?"

"I suppose that works," Hestia said with a glance at Flora.

"Sounds more reasonable," Flora admitted.

"I promise to remember you too," Astoria assured them. "Cross my heart."

"Cross my heart," Flora and Hestia repeated.

They only lingered in the water and in seriousness for one moment longer. Then they turned and danced in the golden autumn day. While this wouldn't be forever, it was now.


End file.
